Heading into the storm

"Old Dog! Cover us!"

Zhao Fan roared, holding Evelyn in his arms as he plummeted toward the lawn like a cannonball, cushioning his fall with [Kinetic Repulsion]. Although the repulsion canceled out most of the impact, his tremendous momentum still sent him rolling several times across the muddy grass before he could shed the force.

"Cough, cough..." Evelyn was held tightly in his protective embrace. She was disheveled but unharmed. Still shaken, she looked up-the D.O.D.C. administration building, once a symbol of order and safety, was now belching black smoke from the blasted opening.

Overhead, the roar of an engine drowned out the thunder.

A pitch-black helicopter hovered in midair. The Gatling gun beneath its fuselage was spinning up, its red laser sight sweeping wildly across the lawn like a venomous snake's flickering tongue.

"Ratatatat-!"

Dirt flew, and bullets easily shredded the turf.

"Fuck, these S.H.I.E.L.D. bastards aren't playing around!"

With a piercing screech of brakes, a battered black armored SUV swung into a clean drifting turn and stopped broadside in front of Zhao Fan and Evelyn. Its door flew open.

"Get in! Hurry!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Zhao Fan shoved Evelyn into the back seat, climbed in after her, and slammed the heavy bulletproof door shut.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

Almost the instant the door closed, a string of bullets hammered into it. The bulletproof steel groaned with a teeth-grating sound of deformation, and the vehicle shook violently like a tiny boat in a storm.

"Hold on tight! I'm flooring it!"

Old Dog slammed the accelerator to the floor, and the engine let out a bestial roar. Instead of taking the regular road, the SUV smashed straight through the railing at the edge of the plaza and charged into the sewer drainage channel construction site beside it.

"Ben! That helicopter's still following us!" Through the rearview mirror, Zhao Fan saw the helicopter clinging to their tail like a festering sore, its missile pods already open.

Benjamin's anxious, breathless voice came over the comms. "I'm trying to hurry, boss! But I'm trading blows online with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s AI... no, something even more evil! Damn it, New York City's traffic system is locked down!"

"Forget the traffic lights! Give that helicopter some trouble and stop it from following us!" Zhao Fan shouted.

"I'm trying! I'm trying!"

The SUV bounced across the muddy construction site, nearly tipping into deep pits several times. Evelyn clutched the overhead handle, her face pale, but her gaze remained rational. She looked at Zhao Fan. The man had now taken off that ridiculous gas mask, revealing a stern profile.

"Your ability..." she couldn't help asking. "Was that... a repulsion field?"

"It's a Stark Industries exoskeleton." Zhao Fan lied without turning around as he pulled a specially made high-explosive grenade from his backpack and yanked out the pin. "Old Dog, open the sunroof!"

"Are you crazy? There are missiles out there!"

"Open it!"

The instant the sunroof slid open, fierce wind swept rain into the vehicle. Zhao Fan abruptly stood, thrusting his upper body outside.

At that moment, the helicopter had been forced to lower its altitude to aim at the vehicle weaving through the complex terrain.

Zhao Fan drew a deep breath, energy surging wildly through his body.

[Basic Precision Throwing] locked on!

[Kinetic Repulsion] applied!

The grenade in his hand was no longer an ordinary explosive; it had been given a terrifying initial velocity. The muscles in Zhao Fan's arm bulged as he swung it sharply.

"Get down here!"

The grenade became a black blur, hurtling straight toward the helicopter. Seeing the projectile approach, the pilot reacted extremely quickly and swerved sideways.

"Boom!!!"

An orange-red fireball burst in midair. Although it didn't hit the helicopter directly, it still disrupted its balance. The fuselage rocked violently and lost its equilibrium, forcing it to climb and abandon its first pursuit.

Zhao Fan ducked back into the vehicle, slammed the sunroof shut, and wiped the rain from his face.

"Nice throw!" Old Dog slapped the steering wheel excitedly. "Were you on a baseball team or something?"

"Don't celebrate yet." Zhao Fan panted. "That's only the vanguard. If we don't shake them, we won't even get out of Queens."

"Boss, bad news." Benjamin's avatar flickered on the dashboard screen. "S.H.I.E.L.D. has sealed every bridge and tunnel out of the city, and they've deployed special operations teams to surround you. New York is one giant cage right now."

"Then we'll go where there aren't any roads." Zhao Fan looked at Old Dog. "Head for that old subway line."

Old Dog froze for a moment, then grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth. "That's the kind of crazy I like. That line's been abandoned for fifty years. It's full of rats and homeless people."

"Still better than facing missiles." Zhao Fan turned to Evelyn. "Doctor, welcome to the 'one-day sewer tour.'"

Evelyn tightened her seat belt and glanced at the silver briefcase she held in a death grip.

Half an hour later, deep inside an abandoned old subway tunnel in Brooklyn.

With its headlights off, the SUV sat quietly in a maintenance passage beside the tracks, like a huge beast lying dormant.

It was dark and damp, the air thick with mildew and rust. Occasionally, the vibrations of passing subway trains came from afar-the bustle of the normal world above. Down here, there was only dripping water and the ticking of the cooling engine.

Zhao Fan jumped out and checked the surroundings. Only after confirming that no trackers had followed them did he knock on the window.

"We're safe. For now."

They entered an abandoned control room. Benjamin had already converted it into a temporary safe house, filling it with server racks and various surveillance equipment.

"Oh my God, Doctor, it's good to see you alive." Benjamin poked his head out of the heap of electronic junk, sporting enormous dark circles under his eyes. "That cyber battle almost fried my motherboard."

Evelyn dispensed with pleasantries and walked straight to a table to sit down. "What do we do now?" Although intelligent, Evelyn was a researcher, after all. Faced with this life-or-death law of the jungle, she seemed somewhat lost.

Zhao Fan walked to the wall, where a huge map of New York hung alongside deployment diagrams of Project Insight's three carriers that Benjamin had just printed out.

He jabbed a finger firmly at Washington, D.C.

"We're not running." A light called ambition gleamed in Zhao Fan's eyes. "We're fighting back."

"Fighting back?" Old Dog and Benjamin exclaimed in unison. "With just the four of us?"

"Not just us." Zhao Fan pointed at the map. "Captain America isn't dead yet. Black Widow is still active, and even that Falcon is around. They're the heroes out front. They'll draw fire and fight the big battles."

"And us..." A cold smile curled Zhao Fan's lips. "We're the cleanup crew. In the chaos, we'll raid things those heroes can't spare attention for, but that are vital to Hydra."

He turned to Evelyn and pointed at the carrier schematics. "Doctor, you said those three carriers have Stark Industries' most advanced repulsion engine cores?"

Evelyn nodded. "Yes. They're next-generation engines designed to keep the carriers airborne for extended periods. Each one costs over three billion dollars, with ten times the energy output of the current Arc Reactor."

"Excellent." Zhao Fan clapped his hands. On the system panel, the mission [Throne in the Ruins] shone with an enticing golden light.

"That's our target."

"You're going to steal an engine from a flying aircraft carrier?" Old Dog's jaw dropped. "Fan, did that hit scramble your brains earlier? That thing's thousands of meters in the air, surrounded by autocannons and Hydra's elite!"

"I don't need to steal it." Zhao Fan looked at his hands, where a faint golden-red light was flowing. "I just need to... 'touch' it. And do Captain America a small favor while I'm at it."

He looked at Benjamin. "Ben, can you find us a way to Washington?"

"Uh... legitimate channels are definitely out." Benjamin adjusted his glasses. "But according to the records, there's a D.O.O.C. freight train carrying biological waste leaving New Jersey tonight, heading straight to the banks of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Hydra's attention is all on the sky right now. They're not inspecting garbage haulers like that too closely."

"A garbage hauler." Zhao Fan smiled. "We know those well. That's our private ride."

"Pack up," Zhao Fan ordered. "Bring all the heavy firepower, and those crates of C4 too. Dr. Evelyn, can you use a gun?"

Evelyn took a compact Walther PPK from her lab coat pocket and deftly chambered a round, her eyes cold. "Before I joined the research team, I got an A in shooting at the academy."

"Good."

Zhao Fan walked to the safe house entrance and looked into the pitch-black tunnel outside.

At the New Jersey freight yard beneath the night sky, the rain was still falling.

A heavy freight train loaded with discarded materials and biological waste sat on the tracks, awaiting the departure signal.

Zhao Fan and the others had changed into ordinary road workers' uniforms and blended in with the busy loading crews. Evelyn had cut her dazzling blond hair short and dyed it an inconspicuous dark brown. With some engine oil smeared on her face, she looked like an ordinary onboard records clerk.

"This stinks so much." Evelyn hid behind a pile of scrap materials, pinching her nose.

"Just bear with it." Zhao Fan was inspecting his equipment. He disassembled the two energy pistols and hid their components in separate concealed compartments in the toolbox. As for the lightweight exoskeleton, he was already wearing it under his work clothes. It was a little bulky, but it was a lifesaver.

"Attention, five minutes until departure." Benjamin's voice came through their earpieces. He was currently huddled over his laptop in the caboose at the very end of the train-their only "first-class cabin."

"Someone's coming." Zhao Fan suddenly pressed his headset, his voice dropping sharply. "Don't move."

[Weak Energy Perception] sounded an alarm in his mind.

A cold, precise energy fluctuation filled with killing intent was approaching. It wasn't an ordinary guard or a police officer.

Three men in black trench coats emerged from the shadows of the platform. They carried no umbrellas, yet the rain falling on their coats seemed to be repelled by some invisible field.

They held oddly shaped portable scanners and were inspecting each car.

"They're the S.H.I.E.L.D. special operations team's 'Sweepers.'" Evelyn peered through a gap, her face instantly turning deathly pale. "Those are thermal imaging and heartbeat detectors. We can't hide from them. These steel plates won't block those."

"This is trouble." Zhao Fan frowned. This car was a mandatory inspection checkpoint. If they were discovered, a gunfight would inevitably break out and draw more enemies.

The scanner's red light swept over a nearby car. Soon, it would reach the one where they were hiding.

"I'll draw them away." Evelyn gritted her teeth and reached for the pistol at her waist.

"Don't be stupid. That's suicide." Zhao Fan held her shoulder and pressed her back into the shadows. "That little pistol of yours can't even penetrate their body armor. Stay here and don't move."

Zhao Fan took a deep breath, his gaze settling on a pile of scrap at his feet. Among it was a broken Chitauri aircraft battery, giving off faint but unstable radiant heat.

[F-rank residue detected: damaged energy capacitor.]

Zhao Fan picked up the battery, the muscles in his palm swelling slightly. Without peeking out, he calculated a perfect arc in his mind using the position locked onto by [Weak Energy Perception].

"Hey, I think there's something over there!" One of the men in black suddenly stopped, pointing his scanner toward a transformer tower in the opposite direction.

Just then, Zhao Fan flicked his wrist.

[Precision Throwing]!

The battery became a silent black shadow, flying dozens of meters under cover of darkness and slipping precisely into a ventilation slot in the transformer tower.

"Bzzzt-boom!"

Contact with the high-voltage electricity instantly caused the damaged battery to trigger a violent short-circuit explosion. The transformer tower erupted in dazzling sparks. The entire freight yard's lights went out at once, plunging it into darkness.

"Over there! Go check it out! Hurry!"

The three men in black immediately turned and rushed toward the explosion.

"Now! Get aboard!"

At Zhao Fan's low command, the group took advantage of the darkness and confusion to slip into their designated car with catlike agility.

But just as Zhao Fan climbed aboard last and reached to pull the sliding door shut, a foot in a tactical boot suddenly wedged into the gap.

"Don't move unless you want to die."

An icy voice rang out. One of the men in black who should have gone to investigate the explosion had returned at some unknown point. Through the gap, the dark muzzle of his gun pointed straight between Zhao Fan's brows.

He was a veteran. The explosion hadn't fooled him.

"When did the D.O.D.C. start hiring child labor?" The man in black looked mockingly at Zhao Fan's young face, his finger tightening on the trigger.

In that critical instant, Zhao Fan didn't retreat. Instead, he lunged forward and pressed his chest against the muzzle.

"Bang!"

The gun fired.

But the bullet didn't penetrate Zhao Fan's body. In that instant, the exoskeleton armor over his chest, combined with the localized hardening of [Hard Carapace], forcibly stopped the bullet. Even the sound seemed to have been absorbed.

At the same time, Zhao Fan's right hand had already clamped around the man's wrist.

[Kinetic Repulsion: Shock]!

"Crack!"

A violent surge of repulsion poured directly into the man's arm, instantly shattering his wrist bones and elbow joint.

"Ah-"

Before the man could scream, Zhao Fan covered his mouth with his left hand and hauled him into the car.

No words were needed. Old Dog, already poised nearby, swung his shotgun's stock and smashed it hard into the back of the man's head.

"Thud."

The world fell silent.

Zhao Fan panted, a dull tightness in his chest. Although he had blocked the bullet, the kinetic impact had still left his ribs aching a little.

"Are you okay?" Evelyn hurried over in alarm to check his injury.

"I'll live." Zhao Fan kicked the unconscious man into a corner and covered him with a pile of scrap metal.

At that moment, the train gave a long blast of its horn. The steel behemoth slowly started moving in the darkness, its wheels clattering rhythmically over the rails.

"Clack... clack..."

Zhao Fan leaned against the car wall, watching the scenery race backward outside, his gaze unfathomable.

Through the rainy night, the train carrying vengeful fury and ambition broke through New York's blockade and headed toward the heart of the storm.